Senin, 24 Agustus 2009
Minggu, 09 Agustus 2009
Guarding Your Thoughts
Even though the media is constantly telling us that these are tough times and getting tougher, that doesn’t mean you have to swallow that kind of news “lock, stock and barrel.” It’s important for all of us to maintain a positive attitude if we ever hope to get through this current situation. Whether on a personal or a business level, the “power of positive thinking” can mean the difference between success and failure. It seriously can!
I know it’s tough to do sometimes and it seems to be getting tougher as the days go by but you really need to start your day with some positive affirmations, a smile, some exercise, and a good breakfast. And even if things aren’t working the way you had planned, if you look around your personal world, I’m sure you’ll see others who are having a worst time of it. That’s an opportunity for you to step up and help them. I’ve seen neighbors helping neighbors more often recently and that alone can give you a great feeling.
I know sometimes it's really difficult to stay positive and optimistic about what your future may hold - especially in times of financial hardship. And again, there’s the ever present media helping us to create a lot of worrying and frustration.
Remember that your personal attitude sets the tone for how your day will be. It really does. If you get up in the morning believing that you will have a hard time of it…you probably will. You need to begin focusing on your obstacles and challenges (and I know you have them) and try to determine how you can beat them. Stop dwelling on how they are beating you!
I'm not asking you to be insensitive but I am saying that you need to guard your thoughts and by doing so, you protect your positive attitude. Safeguard your thoughts like they are a valuable treasure.
The most efficient way to help someone who is having financial problems is to try and be as objective as possible. Try to guide the conversation away from the emotional aspects of the situation – and that, my friend is the challenge. Offer them solutions that perhaps you have used to get out of a bad situation. Pessimism can be contagious and damaging to your road to success.
Again, times are tough but it’s time to be bold and take a firm stand to protect your future. Learn to be solution-oriented and totally bright and cheerful. That is easier said than done so be prepared to focus on the required adjustments if you hope to make it through these hard times. Also remember that you will not always succeed; there will be loss or failure at some point. Don't dwell on the bad stuff. Successful people have taught us that success needs patience, determination, an encouraging attitude and the willingness to change, when necessary.
I heard on television the other day that tough times never last but tough people do. I think that’s something that all of us need to take to heart in these difficult economic times. Try to focus on the positive things that are happening in your life…your blessings, your children, a good meal on your table, a wonderful spouse, a job or the hope of a job. If you think of things that are worthwhile, you will begin to live a life that is productive, useful and fun.
Self Hypnosis: Gentle Therapy With Many Benefits
Do you lead a particularly stressful life? Do you find it difficult to concentrating on anything? And then, self Hypnosis can help you. Hypnosis helps you focus the mind by slowing thoughts and breath. It is a kind of gentle therapy with many benefits.
Once you slow down your thoughts, you can find your subconscious mind. In this way, you can take the positive advices that can help you change for better.
You will find it easy to concentrate on something through self hypnosis. It can help you improve decision making, increase your attention span and generally enable you to work more efficiently and productively.
When taking self hypnosis, you should choose an object or a goal. For example, you can select quitting Smoking as your goal. After a period of time, you can see if you achieve your goal.
Self hypnosis can reduce your stress by controlling your mind. During self hypnosis, you will experience a deeply relaxed state of focus, which will protect your body from further health issues related to chronic stress. It can also be used to reduce pain and is an inexpensive way of maintaining general wellbeing.
As with any form of therapy self hypnosis may not be suitable for everyone. Some people may be too closed to the idea of focusing awareness and paying attention to the inner self. Others may simply experience difficulty relaxing enough to induce a trance-like, deeply relaxed state. Sometimes being able to find sufficient time may cause problems with continuing to explore the possibilities self hypnosis has to offer.
Being aware of you personal limitations, before you commit to working with self hypnosis on a regular basis, makes sense. If you do have time restriction but are interested in trying self hypnosis an initial facilitated Hypnotherapy session with a therapist is always another alternative.
Once you slow down your thoughts, you can find your subconscious mind. In this way, you can take the positive advices that can help you change for better.
You will find it easy to concentrate on something through self hypnosis. It can help you improve decision making, increase your attention span and generally enable you to work more efficiently and productively.
When taking self hypnosis, you should choose an object or a goal. For example, you can select quitting Smoking as your goal. After a period of time, you can see if you achieve your goal.
Self hypnosis can reduce your stress by controlling your mind. During self hypnosis, you will experience a deeply relaxed state of focus, which will protect your body from further health issues related to chronic stress. It can also be used to reduce pain and is an inexpensive way of maintaining general wellbeing.
As with any form of therapy self hypnosis may not be suitable for everyone. Some people may be too closed to the idea of focusing awareness and paying attention to the inner self. Others may simply experience difficulty relaxing enough to induce a trance-like, deeply relaxed state. Sometimes being able to find sufficient time may cause problems with continuing to explore the possibilities self hypnosis has to offer.
Being aware of you personal limitations, before you commit to working with self hypnosis on a regular basis, makes sense. If you do have time restriction but are interested in trying self hypnosis an initial facilitated Hypnotherapy session with a therapist is always another alternative.
What Does Hypnosis Feel Like?
Most people are pleasantly surprised with their first hypnotic experience. (I know I was!) While being hypnotized, you and your hypnotist will guide your body into a state of powerful and wonderful relaxation. Many people enjoy being hypnotized simply because there is no more effective way for relaxing themselves so deeply.
Once the hypnotic induction is completed, a hypnotized person is still completely aware of the room, can still hear everything going on, and is still thinking actively for themselves. They listen to the hypnotist and if the hypnotist gives them a suggestion they like, they choose to accept it.
"Waking up" from Hypnosis feels like simply rousing oneself from a daydream. Because a hypnotized person has been basked in wonderfully deep relaxation, they usually feel recharged, energized, and feeling great emotionally.
If you have had positive experiences with hypnosis, it will naturally facilitate your re-experiencing it. If you are concerned that under hypnosis you might reveal some deep personal secrets, you should not be. You will reveal only what you wish unless the hypnotist is using unethical techniques, such as using mechanical devices or drugs to unearth or implant suggestions.
A light hypnotic state may be sufficient to accomplish the goals of the session. Most people can achieve a trance deep enough to allow for the process. Hypnosis is one of many tools and techniques used to uncover information or to work out problems.
People with a wide range of intellectual giftedness or limitations can be hypnotized. Almost anyone can be hypnotized, even children as young as three. Old people can also be hypnotized. The ability to enter hypnosis frequently depends on the training and expertise of the hypnotist.
Once the hypnotic induction is completed, a hypnotized person is still completely aware of the room, can still hear everything going on, and is still thinking actively for themselves. They listen to the hypnotist and if the hypnotist gives them a suggestion they like, they choose to accept it.
"Waking up" from Hypnosis feels like simply rousing oneself from a daydream. Because a hypnotized person has been basked in wonderfully deep relaxation, they usually feel recharged, energized, and feeling great emotionally.
If you have had positive experiences with hypnosis, it will naturally facilitate your re-experiencing it. If you are concerned that under hypnosis you might reveal some deep personal secrets, you should not be. You will reveal only what you wish unless the hypnotist is using unethical techniques, such as using mechanical devices or drugs to unearth or implant suggestions.
A light hypnotic state may be sufficient to accomplish the goals of the session. Most people can achieve a trance deep enough to allow for the process. Hypnosis is one of many tools and techniques used to uncover information or to work out problems.
People with a wide range of intellectual giftedness or limitations can be hypnotized. Almost anyone can be hypnotized, even children as young as three. Old people can also be hypnotized. The ability to enter hypnosis frequently depends on the training and expertise of the hypnotist.
Jumat, 07 Agustus 2009
Basics on Hypnosys
Hypnosis is a term derived from the Greek word for sleep. Hypnosis is very relaxing. However, you never lose awareness during hypnosis. When you are hypnotized, you continue to be aware of your surroundings. Everyone has experienced hypnosis. For instance, you may be watching a commercial that you have seen many times and you find yourself very engrossed in it to the point that should a fly land on your nose you will feel lethargic and give yourself plenty of time to decide if you want it away from you. Daydreaming is also a hypnotic state.
Hypnosis as used in a doctor's office is a healing or investigative process. The client's welfare is the sole focus of the procedure and the work is geared towards helping the client. Stage hypnosis is a show where people perform acts that are used to entertain an audience. Since the purpose is usually to hold the audience's interest and to entertain them, the subjects are carefully selected and screened before the stage demonstration begins.
Everyone can be hypnotized provided that they want to be. Anyone who wishes to be hypnotized can be. Even people with short attention spans can be hypnotized but the procedure requires special skills on the part of the hypnotist.
During hypnosis, one looks asleep but is not. You certainly will not be asleep or unconscious. If you were asleep, you would not be able to have a dialogue with your hypnotist. As a matter of fact, during hypnosis you are even more aware of what is going on around you than you would ordinarily be but you can be selective about it (which you can't do in the waking state). While under hypnosis, you are in a very relaxed and pleasant state.
Hypnosis as used in a doctor's office is a healing or investigative process. The client's welfare is the sole focus of the procedure and the work is geared towards helping the client. Stage hypnosis is a show where people perform acts that are used to entertain an audience. Since the purpose is usually to hold the audience's interest and to entertain them, the subjects are carefully selected and screened before the stage demonstration begins.
Everyone can be hypnotized provided that they want to be. Anyone who wishes to be hypnotized can be. Even people with short attention spans can be hypnotized but the procedure requires special skills on the part of the hypnotist.
During hypnosis, one looks asleep but is not. You certainly will not be asleep or unconscious. If you were asleep, you would not be able to have a dialogue with your hypnotist. As a matter of fact, during hypnosis you are even more aware of what is going on around you than you would ordinarily be but you can be selective about it (which you can't do in the waking state). While under hypnosis, you are in a very relaxed and pleasant state.
Meditation Therapy
MMT can be defined as: the direct application of mindfulness to the present felt-sense of an emotional complex.
DIRECT APPLICATION means that the individual trains to establish and sustain a quality of relationship with the inner experience of an emotion, called the Mindfulness Based Relationship. The quality of the MBR is the key factor that will determine the successful outcome of MMT.
MINDFULNESS describes direct attention and awareness that is best described by the term ENGAGED PRESENCE. When we are mindful, we are fully awake and aware of what is happening as it is happening, without any thinking about the experience or any emotional reaction to the experience. We simply “sit” with the experience and observe it with a keen interest as we might have when listening to a favorite piece of classical music. But mindfulness also has a quality of engagement in which we investigate the structure of the experience. All mindfulness involves moving beyond the superficial and initial appearance of experience and uncovering the finer and more subtle inner structure of experience. When we listen to an orchestra with this sense of rapture and keen interest, we are likely to become aware of individual instruments and gain a new appreciation of the piece of music that exceeds our previous experience. When this kind of mindfulness is developed, then every time we listen to the music we always discover it anew, even though we have heard it a thousand times. This is the kind of attitude and approach to experience that we are attempting to cultivate in our practice of The Path of Mindfulness and MMT.
The term PRESENT FELT SENSE of an emotional complex is the general quality of feeling that surrounds the emotion. An emotion is different than a feeling, because it has form. An emotion is a constellation of thinking, physical sensations, actions and speech. If you think of anger as an example, to be angry requires changes in facial expression, tightening in various muscle groups throughout the body, an increase in heart rate and changes in behavior. These actions are aggregated around a collage of different feelings, beliefs and patterns of thinking. All of these components are part of the emotional reaction we call anger. A feeling does not have form, but is a property in the same way that the color yellow is a property of a lemon. An emotion has a certain felt sense, a certain quality of feeling energy, called vedana. In Buddhist terms, this general undifferentiated feeling energy can be positive, negative or neutral. The negative form is called dukkhavedana and is the feeling sense that accompanies dukkha or emotional suffering and agitation.
What the Buddha discovered over 2500 years ago, is that this very process of listening with mindfulness and opening to the unfolding orchestra of our own experience, including the experience of emotional suffering, or dukkha, creates the right conditions for transformation. All emotional suffering is comprised of psychological feeling energy, vedana that has become locked into specific mental formations, sankharas that take the form of an emotional reaction, a behavioral reaction or even a bodily reaction. Dukkha is a state of psychological instability and the psyche will always move in a direction that leads to the resolution of this instability, if given the freedom to change. This automatic tendency towards resolution, I call Psychological Homeostasis and which corresponds to the same principle of physiological, biochemical and immunological homeostasis that occurs spontaneously in the body. However, the absolutely essential factor required for homeostasis to work in either the body or the mind is FREEDOM: the freedom to move and change in an intelligent direction that leads towards the resolution of instability and the cessation of dukkha. Mindfulness is the perfection of relationship to our experience that brings this essential quality of freedom to dukkha and creates the ideal conditions in which emotional conflict can transform and resolve itself. A therapeutic space opens around the dukkha and the dukkha responds by changing, transforming in a direction that leads towards resolution. We can feel this process transformation as it is occurring by monitoring changes in feeling tone. When transformation leads to resolution there is a felt shift from dukkhavedana to sukhavedana, the more positive form of feeling energy. Eventually, when resolution is complete, the feeling energy changes further to a state of greater stability in which the felt sense is neutral, balanced and in equilibrium and this is called upekkhavedana. This latter quality of feeling is accompanied by a sense of well-being and vitality as energy is released back into the psyche.
The mechanism of transformation and resolution is primarily experiential, which means that changes evolve from the immediate present experience of the emotion, rather than from our views and beliefs about the experience. Of course, mindfulness, or sati is all about being present for our experience as it arises and unfolds in the present moment. The path of experiential transformation and resolution is unique to each person and each session of MMT. Typically, there will be a differentiation of feelings, memories and word-symbols that seem to fit with the feelings that are experienced. Almost all clients will notice some form of experiential imagery that seems to resonate with the felt sense of the experience. The mind thinks in pictures and uses visual representations to organize experience. Many of us are not aware of this internal imagery, but when we focus mindfulness on the felt sense of an emotion we create the right state of awareness and sensitivity in which imagery will arise. Experiential imagery is imagery that arises from our present felt experience, rather than a visualization that we create and it provides an extraordinarily powerful medium for promoting the transformation and resolution of dukkha.
THE PROCESS OF MMT
The first phase of MMT is primarily about learning to recognize reactions as and when they arise and replace ignorance with awareness. This is the first function of mindfulness, the factor of RECOGNITION. Without this most basic first step nothing can change, but with awareness comes the possibility of change. Recognition is the beginning of the transformational process and often this skill alone is sufficient to totally change the whole reactive dynamic between two people.
The next phase of MMT involves changing how we view the reaction and associated emotional energy. This is called REFRAMING and is one of a number of skills that is taught in the psychological science of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and which is another chief modality used in MMT. Normally, (ie when we are unaware) we blindly identify with emotional reactions and literally become the reaction. When a reaction of feeling hurt arises we become the emotional reaction of hurting. Anger arises and we become angry. We say “I am upset,” or “I am angry” because we literally take on the entire identity of the emotion. During reframing, we learn to stop this automatic process of subjective identification and see the reaction as simply an object that is not self, but simply a phenomenon that has arisen in our consciousness due to various causes and conditions. When the reaction of feeling upset arises, we now see it as an object within us, rather like a bubble rising in a pond. The bubble is not the pond, but simply an object that arises within the pond and the emotion is not our self, but simply a small part that arises within our experience. After reframing the emotion, we learn to say, “I notice a feeling of hurting within me” or “I notice anger arising in my mind.” This is a very important step, because it counteracts the habitual tendency to react and opens up a sense of space and choices around the emotion. You cannot relate to something with any sense of presence and engagement if you are gripped by reactivity: reactivity inhibits relationship. Only when you can form a pure and direct relationship with an experience, including emotional suffering, will presence and engagement be possible and without complete presence, nothing can change.
The third phase of MMT, after RECOGNITION and REFRAMING is the most important step of forming a RELATIONSHIP with the internal felt-sense of the emotional reaction. Let us explore this in more detail. Once you have recognized a reaction and made it into an object that you can see and experience, then you begin to see the emotional reaction as an object to be investigated and known in its own right, rather than getting entangled in the storyline of the emotion, which is our usual tendency. The storyline may be very compelling and you may feel very offended or hurt, but indulging in negative, emotionally charged thinking is seldom an effective tool for resolving emotional conflict, internally or externally. This is the first function of mindfulness: learning to recognize a reaction, seeing it as an object and not getting seduced into further reactivity.
The kind of relationship that we cultivate in MMT is called the Mindfulness Based Relationship. This relationship has certain unique qualities. The first and most important quality is non-reactivity. By learning to recognize reactivity, we can stop the tendency to proliferate further reactivity in the form of reactive thinking, or further emotional reactions of aversion and displeasure. The second characteristic of the mindfulness-based relationship is about opening our heart and mind and developing a quality of genuine caring towards the inner pain of our anger or resentment. Instead of turning away, we turn towards our suffering or the suffering of others. This does not mean that we indulge in feeling sorry for ourselves and certainly it does not mean that we indulge in reactive thinking, such as worrying. Rather, we learn to be fully present with our inner felt experience of an emotion with a keen level of attention. The third quality of mindfulness is investigation. We turn towards our pain, we become attentive and then we take this further step and investigate the deeper inner structure of the experience. This has a profound effect on whatever is observed and the observed responds by differentiating into its component parts. What seemed like the solid emotion of anger or resentment, fear or anxiety begins to unfold into a complex interior landscape of subtle feelings and memories and very often, some form of experiential imagery.
This is the fourth phase of MMT: EXPERIENTIAL TRANSFORMATION. The term “experiential” is a very important term in mindfulness work and MMT and has a very specific meaning. By “experiential” we mean that we allow experience to unfold in its own way and in its own time without any interference or agenda or beliefs about what should happen. Mindfulness provides the ideal therapeutic space in which experiential unfolding can occur, because of its open and non-judgemental quality. What unfolds is often unexpected and unpredictable, but has a very clear felt meaning and felt sense of being relevant and important. The exact nature of what unfolds is unique to each person and cannot be predicted. There is no attempt made to interpret what arises, only to fully experience it with mindfulness and full presence of mind. The effect of becoming aware of this inner detailed structure that arises naturally as we focus mindfully on an emotion is highly transformational. Often, beneath anger there is sadness and beneath resentment there is fear. These more subtle feelings may give rise to further feelings and experience. During the process of transformation, emotions literally dissolve into many small parts, which can be more readily digested and re-integrated by the psyche and our innate intelligence into something more stable.
Besides the differentiation of feelings and associated memories, people will frequently encounter some form of experiential imagery. It may be in the form of a memory image, a picture from the past. Experiential imagery often takes on a more abstract form of shifting colors and shapes. Whatever form the imagery takes, the approach is always to “sit” with the present experience and felt sense associated with the imagery and allow it to unfold and change in its own unique way. One person focusing on anger first notices a red color, which takes on the form of a hard, rough rock. With continued mindfulness, the rock begins to change shape and color and dissolves into a pile of white sand. This is not visualization, because there was no deliberate effort to create the imagery; they arose experientially. The process of unfolding and transformation of experiential imagery is one of the most powerful events that can occur during MMT and is one of the most effective means of producing change at the deepest level of our emotional suffering. How this works is not well understood, but it is generally agreed that the mind thinks in pictures and organizes memory and particularly the affective dimension of memory through visual imagery. Why the anger took on the form of a red colored rock is interesting and of course red is often associated with anger, as is hardness. Why it changed into white sand is also interesting and similarly we can make interpretations of what it means: white sand symbolizes tranquility and fluidity. However, interpretation is not the purpose of MMT; what is important is the full conscious experience of this process of change in the inner structure of our experience. It is this conscious awareness of the process that is transformational, not an understanding of the contents that arise.
The final step of MMT is RESOLUTION. Resolution is said to have occurred when the emotional energy that powers a pattern of emotional reactivity has dissipated and returned to the psyche, providing energy for new and more positive responses. Resolution is the state of equilibrium, accompanied by a felt sense of uppekhavedana, which although neutral can lead to very euphoric feelings that can be simply described as the taste of freedom. Any form of emotional suffering, or dukkha, as it is called in Buddhism, represents a state of instability and conflict in the psyche. The psyche hates instability and will always try to resolve dukkha if given the freedom to change. Mindfulness provides the therapeutic space and freedom in which transformation and resolution can occur. The guiding principle throughout MMT and the process of transformation and eventual resolution of emotional pain is called satipanna, which means the “wisdom-intelligence that arises with mindfulness.” This is our innate intelligence that we all possess and which is unique to each moment of experience. Just as water seems to have an innate intelligence in its relentless journey to be united with the ocean, so the psyche has an innate intelligence that will always move towards the resolution of dukkha in all its forms. Mindfulness provides the conditions of freedom and openness in which satipanna will naturally direct and guide all the subtle changes at the experiential level that lead to the resolution of dukkha. This is also described in Buddhism as the awakening or living real-time insight into the Four Noble Truths: Awakening to dukkha, the cause of dukkha, the state of non-dukkha and The Path of Mindfulness that leads to the resolution of dukkha. We start with recognizing dukkha, we form a relationship with the dukkha with mindfulness and we allow the dukkha to unfold, change and transform itself in the direction that leads to its cessation. This direction is literally encoded in the internal structure of the state of instability of dukkha in just the same way that the path that water will take is encoded in the very process of creating instability when we pour water on the top of a hill. The direction of change is always towards greater and ultimately final and absolute stability. This applies to dukkha just as much as to the water trapped on top of a hill. Given time and the freedom to change, that water will return to the ocean and the psyche will resolve dukkha and reach a place of stability.
DIRECT APPLICATION means that the individual trains to establish and sustain a quality of relationship with the inner experience of an emotion, called the Mindfulness Based Relationship. The quality of the MBR is the key factor that will determine the successful outcome of MMT.
MINDFULNESS describes direct attention and awareness that is best described by the term ENGAGED PRESENCE. When we are mindful, we are fully awake and aware of what is happening as it is happening, without any thinking about the experience or any emotional reaction to the experience. We simply “sit” with the experience and observe it with a keen interest as we might have when listening to a favorite piece of classical music. But mindfulness also has a quality of engagement in which we investigate the structure of the experience. All mindfulness involves moving beyond the superficial and initial appearance of experience and uncovering the finer and more subtle inner structure of experience. When we listen to an orchestra with this sense of rapture and keen interest, we are likely to become aware of individual instruments and gain a new appreciation of the piece of music that exceeds our previous experience. When this kind of mindfulness is developed, then every time we listen to the music we always discover it anew, even though we have heard it a thousand times. This is the kind of attitude and approach to experience that we are attempting to cultivate in our practice of The Path of Mindfulness and MMT.
The term PRESENT FELT SENSE of an emotional complex is the general quality of feeling that surrounds the emotion. An emotion is different than a feeling, because it has form. An emotion is a constellation of thinking, physical sensations, actions and speech. If you think of anger as an example, to be angry requires changes in facial expression, tightening in various muscle groups throughout the body, an increase in heart rate and changes in behavior. These actions are aggregated around a collage of different feelings, beliefs and patterns of thinking. All of these components are part of the emotional reaction we call anger. A feeling does not have form, but is a property in the same way that the color yellow is a property of a lemon. An emotion has a certain felt sense, a certain quality of feeling energy, called vedana. In Buddhist terms, this general undifferentiated feeling energy can be positive, negative or neutral. The negative form is called dukkhavedana and is the feeling sense that accompanies dukkha or emotional suffering and agitation.
What the Buddha discovered over 2500 years ago, is that this very process of listening with mindfulness and opening to the unfolding orchestra of our own experience, including the experience of emotional suffering, or dukkha, creates the right conditions for transformation. All emotional suffering is comprised of psychological feeling energy, vedana that has become locked into specific mental formations, sankharas that take the form of an emotional reaction, a behavioral reaction or even a bodily reaction. Dukkha is a state of psychological instability and the psyche will always move in a direction that leads to the resolution of this instability, if given the freedom to change. This automatic tendency towards resolution, I call Psychological Homeostasis and which corresponds to the same principle of physiological, biochemical and immunological homeostasis that occurs spontaneously in the body. However, the absolutely essential factor required for homeostasis to work in either the body or the mind is FREEDOM: the freedom to move and change in an intelligent direction that leads towards the resolution of instability and the cessation of dukkha. Mindfulness is the perfection of relationship to our experience that brings this essential quality of freedom to dukkha and creates the ideal conditions in which emotional conflict can transform and resolve itself. A therapeutic space opens around the dukkha and the dukkha responds by changing, transforming in a direction that leads towards resolution. We can feel this process transformation as it is occurring by monitoring changes in feeling tone. When transformation leads to resolution there is a felt shift from dukkhavedana to sukhavedana, the more positive form of feeling energy. Eventually, when resolution is complete, the feeling energy changes further to a state of greater stability in which the felt sense is neutral, balanced and in equilibrium and this is called upekkhavedana. This latter quality of feeling is accompanied by a sense of well-being and vitality as energy is released back into the psyche.
The mechanism of transformation and resolution is primarily experiential, which means that changes evolve from the immediate present experience of the emotion, rather than from our views and beliefs about the experience. Of course, mindfulness, or sati is all about being present for our experience as it arises and unfolds in the present moment. The path of experiential transformation and resolution is unique to each person and each session of MMT. Typically, there will be a differentiation of feelings, memories and word-symbols that seem to fit with the feelings that are experienced. Almost all clients will notice some form of experiential imagery that seems to resonate with the felt sense of the experience. The mind thinks in pictures and uses visual representations to organize experience. Many of us are not aware of this internal imagery, but when we focus mindfulness on the felt sense of an emotion we create the right state of awareness and sensitivity in which imagery will arise. Experiential imagery is imagery that arises from our present felt experience, rather than a visualization that we create and it provides an extraordinarily powerful medium for promoting the transformation and resolution of dukkha.
THE PROCESS OF MMT
The first phase of MMT is primarily about learning to recognize reactions as and when they arise and replace ignorance with awareness. This is the first function of mindfulness, the factor of RECOGNITION. Without this most basic first step nothing can change, but with awareness comes the possibility of change. Recognition is the beginning of the transformational process and often this skill alone is sufficient to totally change the whole reactive dynamic between two people.
The next phase of MMT involves changing how we view the reaction and associated emotional energy. This is called REFRAMING and is one of a number of skills that is taught in the psychological science of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and which is another chief modality used in MMT. Normally, (ie when we are unaware) we blindly identify with emotional reactions and literally become the reaction. When a reaction of feeling hurt arises we become the emotional reaction of hurting. Anger arises and we become angry. We say “I am upset,” or “I am angry” because we literally take on the entire identity of the emotion. During reframing, we learn to stop this automatic process of subjective identification and see the reaction as simply an object that is not self, but simply a phenomenon that has arisen in our consciousness due to various causes and conditions. When the reaction of feeling upset arises, we now see it as an object within us, rather like a bubble rising in a pond. The bubble is not the pond, but simply an object that arises within the pond and the emotion is not our self, but simply a small part that arises within our experience. After reframing the emotion, we learn to say, “I notice a feeling of hurting within me” or “I notice anger arising in my mind.” This is a very important step, because it counteracts the habitual tendency to react and opens up a sense of space and choices around the emotion. You cannot relate to something with any sense of presence and engagement if you are gripped by reactivity: reactivity inhibits relationship. Only when you can form a pure and direct relationship with an experience, including emotional suffering, will presence and engagement be possible and without complete presence, nothing can change.
The third phase of MMT, after RECOGNITION and REFRAMING is the most important step of forming a RELATIONSHIP with the internal felt-sense of the emotional reaction. Let us explore this in more detail. Once you have recognized a reaction and made it into an object that you can see and experience, then you begin to see the emotional reaction as an object to be investigated and known in its own right, rather than getting entangled in the storyline of the emotion, which is our usual tendency. The storyline may be very compelling and you may feel very offended or hurt, but indulging in negative, emotionally charged thinking is seldom an effective tool for resolving emotional conflict, internally or externally. This is the first function of mindfulness: learning to recognize a reaction, seeing it as an object and not getting seduced into further reactivity.
The kind of relationship that we cultivate in MMT is called the Mindfulness Based Relationship. This relationship has certain unique qualities. The first and most important quality is non-reactivity. By learning to recognize reactivity, we can stop the tendency to proliferate further reactivity in the form of reactive thinking, or further emotional reactions of aversion and displeasure. The second characteristic of the mindfulness-based relationship is about opening our heart and mind and developing a quality of genuine caring towards the inner pain of our anger or resentment. Instead of turning away, we turn towards our suffering or the suffering of others. This does not mean that we indulge in feeling sorry for ourselves and certainly it does not mean that we indulge in reactive thinking, such as worrying. Rather, we learn to be fully present with our inner felt experience of an emotion with a keen level of attention. The third quality of mindfulness is investigation. We turn towards our pain, we become attentive and then we take this further step and investigate the deeper inner structure of the experience. This has a profound effect on whatever is observed and the observed responds by differentiating into its component parts. What seemed like the solid emotion of anger or resentment, fear or anxiety begins to unfold into a complex interior landscape of subtle feelings and memories and very often, some form of experiential imagery.
This is the fourth phase of MMT: EXPERIENTIAL TRANSFORMATION. The term “experiential” is a very important term in mindfulness work and MMT and has a very specific meaning. By “experiential” we mean that we allow experience to unfold in its own way and in its own time without any interference or agenda or beliefs about what should happen. Mindfulness provides the ideal therapeutic space in which experiential unfolding can occur, because of its open and non-judgemental quality. What unfolds is often unexpected and unpredictable, but has a very clear felt meaning and felt sense of being relevant and important. The exact nature of what unfolds is unique to each person and cannot be predicted. There is no attempt made to interpret what arises, only to fully experience it with mindfulness and full presence of mind. The effect of becoming aware of this inner detailed structure that arises naturally as we focus mindfully on an emotion is highly transformational. Often, beneath anger there is sadness and beneath resentment there is fear. These more subtle feelings may give rise to further feelings and experience. During the process of transformation, emotions literally dissolve into many small parts, which can be more readily digested and re-integrated by the psyche and our innate intelligence into something more stable.
Besides the differentiation of feelings and associated memories, people will frequently encounter some form of experiential imagery. It may be in the form of a memory image, a picture from the past. Experiential imagery often takes on a more abstract form of shifting colors and shapes. Whatever form the imagery takes, the approach is always to “sit” with the present experience and felt sense associated with the imagery and allow it to unfold and change in its own unique way. One person focusing on anger first notices a red color, which takes on the form of a hard, rough rock. With continued mindfulness, the rock begins to change shape and color and dissolves into a pile of white sand. This is not visualization, because there was no deliberate effort to create the imagery; they arose experientially. The process of unfolding and transformation of experiential imagery is one of the most powerful events that can occur during MMT and is one of the most effective means of producing change at the deepest level of our emotional suffering. How this works is not well understood, but it is generally agreed that the mind thinks in pictures and organizes memory and particularly the affective dimension of memory through visual imagery. Why the anger took on the form of a red colored rock is interesting and of course red is often associated with anger, as is hardness. Why it changed into white sand is also interesting and similarly we can make interpretations of what it means: white sand symbolizes tranquility and fluidity. However, interpretation is not the purpose of MMT; what is important is the full conscious experience of this process of change in the inner structure of our experience. It is this conscious awareness of the process that is transformational, not an understanding of the contents that arise.
The final step of MMT is RESOLUTION. Resolution is said to have occurred when the emotional energy that powers a pattern of emotional reactivity has dissipated and returned to the psyche, providing energy for new and more positive responses. Resolution is the state of equilibrium, accompanied by a felt sense of uppekhavedana, which although neutral can lead to very euphoric feelings that can be simply described as the taste of freedom. Any form of emotional suffering, or dukkha, as it is called in Buddhism, represents a state of instability and conflict in the psyche. The psyche hates instability and will always try to resolve dukkha if given the freedom to change. Mindfulness provides the therapeutic space and freedom in which transformation and resolution can occur. The guiding principle throughout MMT and the process of transformation and eventual resolution of emotional pain is called satipanna, which means the “wisdom-intelligence that arises with mindfulness.” This is our innate intelligence that we all possess and which is unique to each moment of experience. Just as water seems to have an innate intelligence in its relentless journey to be united with the ocean, so the psyche has an innate intelligence that will always move towards the resolution of dukkha in all its forms. Mindfulness provides the conditions of freedom and openness in which satipanna will naturally direct and guide all the subtle changes at the experiential level that lead to the resolution of dukkha. This is also described in Buddhism as the awakening or living real-time insight into the Four Noble Truths: Awakening to dukkha, the cause of dukkha, the state of non-dukkha and The Path of Mindfulness that leads to the resolution of dukkha. We start with recognizing dukkha, we form a relationship with the dukkha with mindfulness and we allow the dukkha to unfold, change and transform itself in the direction that leads to its cessation. This direction is literally encoded in the internal structure of the state of instability of dukkha in just the same way that the path that water will take is encoded in the very process of creating instability when we pour water on the top of a hill. The direction of change is always towards greater and ultimately final and absolute stability. This applies to dukkha just as much as to the water trapped on top of a hill. Given time and the freedom to change, that water will return to the ocean and the psyche will resolve dukkha and reach a place of stability.
Analysis Paralysis - The Mind Trap
You know that feeling of how sometimes we plan on doing something but never end up doing it? This is analysis paralysis. What happens is that we spend so much time thinking about how to take action that it begins to become the action itself. The thinking part replaces that doing part as the action. This is a cycle that you do not want to get yourself into.
So what does this analysis paralysis happen to us? It’s really something that tricks the human mind. A lot of the times, we think of doing actions to accomplish a goal we have in mind. But what happens is that sometimes doing those actions makes us uncomfortable or some degree of fear is involved.
So in order to remedy this, we start to analyze the situation of taking action because doing so makes us feel good inside. It makes us feel like the action of analyzing is at least something productive.
So what does this analysis paralysis happen to us? It’s really something that tricks the human mind. A lot of the times, we think of doing actions to accomplish a goal we have in mind. But what happens is that sometimes doing those actions makes us uncomfortable or some degree of fear is involved.
So in order to remedy this, we start to analyze the situation of taking action because doing so makes us feel good inside. It makes us feel like the action of analyzing is at least something productive.
So once the plan is made, we go forth and do the action that we have on a piece of paper. As the action is about to take place, something happens that stops us. It is an emotional that holds us back for whatever reason it happens to be during that moment.
So we go back to our rooms, or wherever we feel most comfortable in, and spend more time, more hours, creating and devising a plan to take action again.
This time we make analyze the last situation of why we didn’t take action and we devise a better plan. This time it is perfect.
So we go and perform the action again with more energy and motivation. And as we start to take that action, we feel the emotion again that creeps back in our minds, “Go away,” you tell yourself, but it becomes to become more and more overwhelming. “Go away, I mean it. I need to do this!”
By this time, you start to talk to yourself more and more. Ultimately, the moment is passed, and you head back into your comfortable area again, devising yet another plan to take action the next time. And this cycle continues over and over again until we reach the point of mental collapse, where the goal we initially had in mind is now put on hold until it is forgotten or never sees the light of day.
There are many things that cause each of our own analyses paralyses, but I believe that there are two primary causes that inhibit our ability to take action and remain stuck in analyzing mode.
Fear
Perfection
The first one is obvious to why we spend so much thinking about performing action and that is fear. Have you ever been told that if you want to meet somebody new, you will have to approach a stranger in public and go from there? If you have never done this before, you will probably go through a minor case of analyses paralysis, where you spend a lot of time writing down what you will say, what your first line will be, what the last line will be, where you will meet the stranger, what is your back up plan if the stranger rejects you, how you will gather the courage to approach the stranger in the first place, etc.
Some people turn analyses paralyses into an obsession. Something that takes a minute to do, takes about an hour of analyzing and talking in the head before doing it. Since the emotional burden of it is not worth the results, usually they just end spending more time to analyze a better plan or quit all together.
Secondly, analysis paralysis can come from the want to be perfect. You’ve probably heard of perfectionists who need to have a perfect plan before they start to take action. They want and need to know every step of the way before taking any action. It’s like having a perfectly outlined strategy guide before playing an adventure game. What fun would it be to know all the answers to something before doing it? Once can always create the answers from trial and error experience; but what happens is that usually these people are never satisfied with the guide before it is never “perfect” enough for them to take action.
So, in essence, this is what analyses paralysis is. It is a mind trap. And it could well be one of the worst possible habits one can develop when it comes to getting things done in life.
I’ve been through analyses paralyses before and I’m sure everybody has. If you happen to find yourself in this stage a lot where you’re looking for a way to find a cure for it, there really isn’t a big secret to solving analysis paralysis. It’s simply just to take action.
Stop constantly worrying about the fear that something wrong is going to happen; most of it is just going on inside the mind. And stop worrying about the perfect plan… you can have the most perfect plan for anything on earth, but if you never apply it in real life, then there’s no point.
Taking action doesn’t require emotional baggage, but most people who suffer analysis paralysis make it that way when they attempt to do something new. Just make it a habit to take action regularly without always analyzing the situation and it will become a piece of cake.
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